Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
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name
The hypothetical donkey who is placed precisely midway between two sources of food or water.
The hypothetical donkey in the context of certainly dying of hunger or thirst by being unable to choose between the two equidistant options.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
The hypothetical donkey who is placed precisely midway between two sources of food or water.
The hypothetical donkey, as a typical character of a number of philosophical paradoxes involving equally valuable incentives to action, and the nature of the possible choices and outcomes.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
Alternative spelling of Buridan's ass (“the hypothetical donkey who is the subject of a philosophical paradox concerning choices of equal value”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of, alternative
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A person or organization who does not make a choice.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, derogatory
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
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noun
Collectively, people who do not make a choice.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: derogatory, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
After the fourteenth-century French philosopher Jean Buridan, whose philosophy of moral determinism it satirizes.
